The other side to the previous topic is the not so cordial sports figures who brushed you off or in the case of a signing looked like they wanted to be any place but where they were. There is the lists of guys who responded to your mail-ins but who do you remember not responding?

I mailed John Olerud at least three times and never even received the courtesy of having my items returned even though I had sent them in self addressed stamped envelopes. Not cool!!!!

Two that come to mind that looked like they wanted to be anywhere other than in a mall signing autographs were Devon White (who never even looked up) and Pat Borders who signed my 8X10 while flirting with one of the hostesses behind him on the platform. I can't really fault him for that one because as I recollect she was pretty hot but he could have at least looked at my photo while scribbling his handle on it?WHO HAVE YOU HAD PROBLEMS WITH?

I fondly remember back in 2003 attending a Senators game in the middle of the winter. We managed to get into the parking lot of the players, and waited for about half an hour in -15 celcuis weather, to meet the guys.

At the time, the big star on Ottawa was Hossa. I had even brought a couple of my buddies cards from T.O. along for the trip, just in case. Me being all of eight years old, I was living in a dream thinking that I was actually going to meet Marian Hossa, the big star at my school (the way I remember it, the popular AAA kid declared he liked Hossa, and everyone else joined the bandwagon.) So anyways, we are meeting the players, chatting, getting autographs. I might add it was fan appreciation night, by the way.

Out comes a blonde Slovak in his suped up Hummer or whatever it was, and we are waiting for him to roll down his window. He doesn't.

So we simply wait there, waving our hands to get his attention. He sees we are intent on getting him to talk, so he rolls down his window a little bit. We say, trying to make small talk, 'are you Marian Hossa?' He clearly was.

I asked Joe Thornton for his autograph and he looked at me, shook his head and walked away. I was 12 at the time. And the other is when i was at a sens game verse ATL. Kovalchuk flipped me puck in warm up, I was surprised i only usually get pucks from the goons and when i sent him a letter saying that I was at the game and you fliped a puck over for me he failed to ever return my card with an autograph.

I was at a Red Deer Rebels game a few years ago and Theo Fleury was in the crowd as he had a cousin playing for the Swift Current Broncos that night (sorry can't remember his name). He had a crowd of kids around him and he looked very annoyed. He signed a couple autographs but then told the kids to bugger off so seeing that I didn't even try to approach him. I felt bad for the remaining kids that didn't get a signature cause you could see the looks on their faces as one of their heroes just brushed them off and rudely.

"There are only two seasons in Canada...hockey season and not hockey season."

Not a hockey story but since this thread started out with baseball players I feel free to go to football players. I was vacationing in Colorado back in the 1980's and heard that a bar in Denver was having several Broncos players including John Elway for a "meet the fans" night. A girl in attendance bought Elway a drink which he promptly slammed down so hard a third of the liquid contents as well as some crushed ice spilled out onto the table and said sternly "If I want a drink I will buy it myself!" The poor girl went back to her table got her coat and left.

Did you hear about the retired proctologist? He spent 40 years saying "what's a place like this doing in a girl like you?"